Andre Drummond‘s playing days with the Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly come to an end, as he’ll be sitting in remaining games in his tenure with them while they look for potential trades for him. And in terms of reported suitors, such as the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat, both of whom Cleveland’s talked Drummond trade with, you can view more on that here/along with others linked to him.
But looking back, the trade to bring Drummond to Cleveland was a reasonable move at the time.
Feb. 6, 2020 seems like an eternity ago, given what has transpired since that date, albeit that was the date the Cavaliers acquired Drummond at the 2020 NBA trade deadline.
In return, all Cleveland gave up was the then-expiring John Henson, Brandon Knight and a 2023 second-round pick to the Detroit Pistons. Giving up two players who are no longer in the league for a former two-time All-star was a sensible move by Cavs general manager Koby Altman.
The Drummond trade acquisition by the Cavs was an experiment that had merit.
Cleveland is not a marquee free agency destination by any means, which means to add talent to the roster, the Cavaliers must either do that through the draft or via trade.
Adding a center of Drummond’s caliber was seen as a move that could benefit the Cavaliers young backcourt duo of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland. With the front office putting a ton of emphasis on the backcourt via the draft, this move to acquire a proven big man was an acquisition seen as the Cavaliers trying to take another step forward to make it out of the Eastern Conference basement.
Having a viable lob threat down low could open up mid-range shots and floaters, which both Sexton and Garland hunt for on offense regularly.
However, Drummond often would rather call his own number on offense and freelance when he touched the ball this season. Rather than being a lob threat and key piece in the pick-and-roll game, Drummond seemingly was hunting for his own stats and trying to prove he was a formidable offensive weapon.
Granted, Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff did appear to give Drummond more freedom to do so, and Cleveland was especially banged up earlier on this season, but it’s been evident for a while here that Drummond doing so led to inefficient offense and took the offense out of rhythm.
Though Drummond has worn the Wine and Gold uniform for over a year, due to the season being cut short last year, he ended only spending 33 games with the Cavaliers.
The Drummond situation did not even take a turn for the worse until Cleveland swooped in to be a part of the James Harden-Brooklyn Nets deal that ultimately netted them 22-year-old big man Jarrett Allen.
More from King James Gospel
- 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
- The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
- 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
- 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
- This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead
Almost immediately, Allen was a fit with the Cavaliers, and Altman and the front office had their eyes on Allen/a player like him for a while, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (subscription required). With Allen seemingly the center of Cleveland’s future, Drummond did not look to have the same buy-in.
While he still put up numbers over his final 12 games (16.1 points, 11.8 rebounds per game), Drummond was essentially putting up “hollow stats” in his final games.
Drummond has the highest usage rate on the team (30.1 percent) over his final 12 games and, despite that, had a net rating of -7.4 over that same span.
Seemingly every time Drummond touched the ball, he was abandoning the offense and just forcing up shot after shot. If Drummond had the speed and finishing finesse of Sexton or Garland, that would be okay, but instead, he was a wrecking ball more often than not.
But back to the point. These are moves the Cavaliers will have to make if they are to take any steps forward. Drummond’s fit was questionable at best, but once Cleveland found their center of the future in Allen, the clock was ticking on Drummond’s time in Cleveland.
And though there could seemingly end up being a buyout for Drummond, given his salary, the Cavs will reportedly be looking/prefer to trade him still, and with him expiring, that’d still appear to very well play out eventually.
Albeit while the Drummond move did not work out, it makes sense why the trade was made, and Cleveland’s front office should not be criticized too heavily. It seemed to be a really high possibility that Drummond would end up picking up his $28.7 million player option for this season, anyhow, for further evaluation. And he did.
Moreover, chances are they will be looking to make similar moves in the future and who knows, it may just net the team a star player needed to help guide the Cleveland Cavaliers back to the playoffs.